A round up of our bird ringing activities, birding trips and other wildlife sorties within the UK and whenever we get chance, elsewhere.

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Bletchingley Garden - 8th January 2017

We made arrangements to spend the day 'chez Pat and Ralph', monitoring the birds that make use of their many feeders. We have been doing yearly winter visits here since 2012. This year we were accompanied by our two trainees as it is our only chance of high numbers during the winter period and extracting a lot of tits around feeders helps develop extracting skills,

After some uncertainty as to whether there would be favourable weather conditions, the day dawned with light mist rather than rain and the planned ringing was able to go ahead. The standard five nets were put up, with additional ground and potter traps, although nothing was caught in either of these.

It wasn't long before there were birds to extract and both trainees had plenty of extraction practice, mostly with Great and Blue Tits. As well as the glut of tits, and opportunities to compare multiple individuals of the same species, there were other species that we rarely catch at our usual sites and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Ring-necked Parakeet and House Sparrow provided some really useful experience.

We had recaptures from each of the four previous sessions held here and these are shown in the table below.

K052235

Blue Tit

Ringed as adult on 16/02/2014

K052236

Blue Tit

Ringed as adult on 16/02/2014

K052348

Great Tit

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

K052358

Great Tit

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

K052379

Great Tit

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

K052387

Blue Tit

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

K052393

Great Tit

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

LC56820

Great Spotted Woodpecker (female)

Ringed as 2Y on 14/03/2015

TJ77614

Nuthatch (male)

Ringed on 9/12/2012 and recaptured 16/02/2014

TJ77616

Nuthatch (female)

Ringed 16/02/2014

Y823552

Great Tit

Ringed as adult 30/11/2013

Y823587

Blue Tit

Ringed as juvenile 30/11/2013

Y823622

Goldfinch

Ringed as juvenile 30/11/2013

Recaptured

TJ77616 Nuthatch female

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker LC56821

Male House Sparrow VB90911

First time handling Ring-necked Parakeet (with an audience too)

6F Ring-necked Parakeet

Many thanks to Ralph and Pat for their wonderful hospitality, all the tea, coffee, biscuits and rolls and especially that fantastic vegetable soup!

About us

We have both been birders for about 30 years based in South Bucks near the West London reservoir complexes.

We have done our bit of twitching in the past, but with other priorities this has become a much reduced activity with a preference for seeing new birds where ever our travels take us.

We regularly visit Cyprus.

We both have been ringing since 2005. Our local group is the Runnymede RG. Chris is a member of the North Thames RG and we have associations with Birdlife Cyprus Ringing scheme, East Yorkshire, Farlington, NOA, North Norfolk Farmland Study and Swale Wader RGs.

We operate sites at Stanwell Moor just west of Heathrow airport and Black Park County park, Bucks. We also do ring at home, and a couple of other local sites. We also ring with our RG at Chobham Common, Hilfield reservoir and at the Wraysbury GP complex.

Chris also has an interest in Butterflies and contains his limited photographic skill to them.

Ringing Recoveries

Merlin Ringing Supplies

We are new in providing Mist Nets and at this stage, have a restricted range and stock in hand is limited. We hope to be able in time a variety of net sizes. We also aim provide a selection of items that you will find useful during ringing activities. If we do not supply a particular item, we aim to try and direct you to the right supplier.www.merlinringing supplies.co.uk